Youth Development
We believe, wholeheartedly, each member of the village is critical to the healthy development of our young people. Educators, doctors, parents, mentors, coaches ― each play a unique, important role in helping our youth develop their confidence, character, connectedness and compassion. The different developmental stages of youth make this task unique and allows us to be creative in what strategies we employ to better support our youth. Our youth development course, designed for youth or adult allies, is based in three main principles:
1) Inclusion & Belonging
2) Strength-based
3) Youth as the expert
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We create workshops and interactive training sessions that help youth or adults reflect, release, and affirm parts of their life. We educate and guide groups through the core principles and phases of youth development and how to maximize these developmental phases for effective growth.
The Challenge
Youth interact with adults all of the time- some of those interactions support growth, other interactions may inhibit it. Additionally, a lot of young people do not have a vast network of caring adults who are helping them develop in their desired ways. In this fast paced society, youth lack the space and time to be thoughtful about their personal growth. At the same time, adults are frequently laser-focused on completing task-heavy days and may miss opportunities to encourage the development of the young people in their lives.
The Solution
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Empathy in Action offers courses for youth or adults, or combination courses with both parties present! These interactive lessons and activities allow space for the young person to develop stronger senses of confidence, compassion, character and connectedness. We help adults identify and address focus areas for their youth constituents and support the acquisition of new tools that remain strength-based, increase inclusion/belonging, and of course, keep the youth as the expert!